Essential car allowance/company car elligability

UpsetEmployee

Hi,

Firstly, I am a long term MSE member and forum poster but have chose to post this anonymously with being a work matter.

Looking for a bit of advice on the use of my vehicle for work. I'm employed as a supervisor by a maintenance contractor which requires me to be out of the office 90% of the time visiting various sites within my local city. Generally I do an average of 35-40 miles per day of local town driving/stop start etc.

Now, the mileage payment I receive is excellent at 65p per mile (no complaints there). However, the company have now decided that where possible they want myself and other supervisors to utilise vans which are standing in the depot, usually whilst another employee is on annual leave or sick etc to reduce the cost of mileage claims. Whilst we are in the summer months and school holidays the likely hood of a van being available is quite high however this will soon change in September/October when I may be able to use a van 2-3 days out of 5 but not all the time, at which point I will be expected to revert back to my own car.

Where this has got my back up is due to the fact that I own and run a second car solely for works benefit, a car which we could sell if it wasn't for business usage as I could easily lift share with a colleague or partner drop me off at work. We have £3-4k tied up in the second car as well as the usual running costs (inc additional cost to add business insurance).

Am I in the wrong here or should the company provide a permanent company vehicle (either a company car inc personal use or a small van which is business use only) or we use our cars on a permanent basis? It feels very much as though the company are having their cake and eating it at the expense of their employees.

Just to add, there is no mention in my contract that I am obliged to even hold a driving license let alone own a car for works usage.

Any help on this much appreciated.

Cheers

hcb42

they dont have to provide it, no. They are compensating you very handsomely when using your own car - must be covering well above your running costs and so on.

UpsetEmployee

I appreciate they are covering my costs whilst using a car...however there is a minimum number of miles to reach a break even point. If, for example I'm only doing 50 miles a month as I'm using a works vehicle the rest of the time as requested that would leave me well out of pocket as I only bought the car for this job.

We don't need a second car and it is highly likely we would only have one car if it wasn't for the business use. There will be months, for example this and next month where I will make zero mileage claims, yet I'm still repaying the loan and insurance as well as keeping the car taxed, MOT'd and loosing a small amount in depreciation.

voucher

35 miles per day x 150 days = 5250 miles (365 days in a year)

5250 x 0.65 = £3412.50

avg insurance = £500
avg mpg = 35
fuel cost for the year @135.9 per ltr = £2255.70

3412.50
2755.70
656.80


Based on you doing 35 miles per day for 150 days out of 365

UpsetEmployee

Until this month myself and the other supervisors have been soley operating out of our cars until some bright spark decided to calculate the cost of mileage claims vs cost of using a spare van...which is why suddenly we've been told to contact the transport controller on a daily basis to see if a vehicle is available with no guarantee there will be one available, especially with 20 other members of staff also making the same phone call.

In my opinion the company should either allow us to operate from our own vehicle permanently or provide a vehicle on a permanent basis, one or the other not half and half.

I suspect you are right that an upfront discussion is required although my gut instinct is the business will be short sited and only focus on the headline cost savings from utilising spare vans at which point I will have to give consideration to refusing to use my own vehicle. How that will go down, I do not know. Hopefully my colleagues will show some backbone and follow the same approach but who knows...

UpsetEmployee

voucher wrote: »

35 miles per day x 150 days = 5250 miles (365 days in a year)

5250 x 0.65 = £3412.50

avg insurance = £500
avg mpg = 35
fuel cost for the year @135.9 per ltr = £2255.70

3412.50
2755.70
656.80


Based on you doing 35 miles per day for 150 days how can you be out of pocket

That's not the issue, hopefully the post above I just made clarifies the issue some more.

Currently, the maths stack up and as you say there is a small profit, although that is reduced by my loan repayments as I didn't have the capital to purchase the car cash at the time and your calculations dont include road tax at £170 as well as consumables/wear & tear.

The problem is, the business wanting us to stop using the cars except when no spare vans are available. This will mean the number of miles I do in my own car are drastically reduced. I estimate to a maximum of 150 a month let alone a week.

I suspect I am going to end up out of pocket, running a car which I only require for work yet isn't actually being used for work due to only being required to use it when the business doesn't have a vehicle spare.

As my contract doesn't stipulate i require a vehicle for work, am I within my rights to refuse to use my vehicle for work? The issue with that is im then unable to do my job, but equally why should I be out of pocket to save the business money?

JournalGirl

I don't see how they can require you to run a car for the purpose of work. So if you got rid of it then the options are the company van or a hire car

kiddy_guy

Basically they're saying they want to keep costs down by utilising their vehicles when free and if not, they want you to use yours.

Sounds unfair, but the question is how you're going to say this without getting their backs up.

I suppose you could say that you can't afford to run your own vehicle if the costs are not being covered mostly by the company as is now.

Perhaps putting the ball in their court is the way to go by nicely explaining your conundrum and suggesting what you feel you and they could do. This would be either they pay the base costs of having the car - tax, mot etc, let you continue as is, or you just drive works vehicles.

However what does your contract say?

UpsetEmployee

Thanks for the reply KG.

My contract makes no mention of even requiring a driving license, let aline a vehicle. Contractually im not obliged to use my car or even drive for the benefit of the business.

I really dont want to appear millitant by been seen as working to rule, however i cant help but feel that the company are being unreasonable by expecting us to provide a vehicle when they are unable to do so.

Daedalus

If a car is needed a car allowance + mileage is reasonable.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

I think it would be worth telling them the truth, that you only run the car because of work and if it is not paying its way because they are relying on the van then you will have to sell it so you need first dibs on spare vans and guidance on how you are going to get to these places if the van isn't free.